Bariatric surgery News

A study published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) shows that bariatric surgery together with medical therapy cut a patient’s blood glucose levels more than medical therapy alone in obese patients who also have type 2 diabetes.

Although US guidelines indicate that bariatric surgery for weight loss is not recommended for kids under 18, a new center for bariatric surgery in the Middle East is planning to operate on children as young as eight.

With over 220,000 bariatric surgical procedures performed in the US in 2008, doctors and patients need to know if the procedures are safe and effective. A federally-funded, multicenter consortium was created to answer that question.